


dynasty

by dryadfiona



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Established Relationship, F/F, Fake Marriage, fake marriage real relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:41:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23249392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryadfiona/pseuds/dryadfiona
Summary: Rachel has a plan. Chloe reluctantly agrees.
Relationships: Rachel Amber/Chloe Price
Comments: 8
Kudos: 27





	dynasty

"I thought high school reunions were supposed to be 20 years after," Chloe says, her head in Rachel's lap. "Why's Blackwell doing 10?"

"Because they want new donors since everyone moved away after the tornado?" Rachel says, playing with Chloe's hair. She'll need a new dye job soon, her roots are showing. "I can't wait to see how bad it still is."

"Wait, you're going?" Chloe says, sitting up. "Why? We got out of Arcadia Bay ages ago."

Rachel forgets, sometimes, that Arcadia Bay was more of a trap for Chloe than a pit stop. She forgets there were moments Chloe thought she might _never_ leave, and as much as Rachel tries, she can't relate at all. She was always getting to California, to New York, to the open road.

"You don't have to come with me, if you don't want to," Rachel says, and leaves the _I'd love it if you did_ unspoken. Chloe always jokes about how she can never say no to her, and it makes her worry a little. A lot. Near constantly, actually. 

"Nah, it's fine," Chloe says, and Rachel frowns a bit when her girlfriend looks away. "It'll be nice to see Max and Kate again."

"Such lovebirds," Rachel says dramatically.

Chloe snorts. "We were _way_ worse."

"Hm," Rachel says, because it's not like she can disagree, what with how their pre-relationship drama resulted in Chloe's expulsion from Blackwell and Rachel _briefly_ hooking up with a drug dealer and far more alcohol in one day than she can even think of drinking in a week nowadays.

But she's also not gonna give up the argument _that_ easy, and Chloe's little huff of annoyance makes her smile a bit.

"So," Chloe says. "What's your plan?"

"What do you mean?" Rachel asks.

Chloe rolls her eyes and lies back down, head back in Rachel's lap. Rachel absent-mindedly starts to braid part of her hair. "You always have a plan, Rachel. Even when you don't need to. _Especially_ when you don't need to."

Rachel sighs. "I _may_ have a plan."

"Called it," Chloe gloats, and Rachel tugs a bit on the half-finished braid in warning. Chloe grins up at her, though, so unsuccessful on that front. "What is it?"

"So you know how my parents _hate_ that we're together?" Rachel says with a wide grin.

Chloe shifts a little, not meeting her eyes. Rachel frowns again. She's so good at reading people, shitty prosecutors in courtrooms or skeezy photographers or even just people on the street, but no matter how many years she spends with Chloe, her girlfriend always manages to catch her off-guard. She likes it, normally, being able to be surprised for _once_ , but then there's these moments where Rachel does something wrong, and she never knows _what_ , and that means she doesn't know how to fix it, which _sucks._

"Yeah," Chloe says after a few moments of awkward silence.

"Right. Um," Rachel says. "I was _thinking_. Be my plus-one to the reunion."

Chloe snorts. "I was already gonna be your date, dumbass. They don't usually let dropouts into reunions."

"But how _shocking_ would it be if we weren't just dating, Chloe Price?" Rachel says with a bright smile. 

Chloe smiles a bit, but it looks tight around the edges, less open than it should be. It looks like the way she smiled when Rachel first dragged her out of Blackwell, that first day--no, that second evening, when Rachel was being an asshole and Chloe was being honest and Rachel couldn't handle it. 

"Are you proposing to me, Rachel Amber?" Chloe asks, still not quite right.

Rachel leans down, so her lips are close enough to brush Chloe's if she's not careful (which she never is, but this is a special occasion). "If I was proposing, you'd know."

Chloe shivers, pupils dilating a bit, and Rachel smiles, satisfied and self-assured again, because she can handle _this_.

* * *

Chloe's wearing a suit, her hair's freshly dyed, and is fiddling with the ring on her finger. Rachel thinks she's adorable. 

"This was a bad idea," Chloe says, eyes flitting around like she's not sure whether to make a break for it or start throwing punches.

"Come on," Rachel says gently. "You can head back to the hotel, if you want. I won't subject you to dinner with my parents."

"No," Chloe says, sitting up and squaring her shoulders. It's a gesture more suited for a battlefield than the passenger seat of their rental car. (The truck was old when they were screwing around here--it rusts in their garage and Chloe lovingly refuses to get another car, so they rent when they need to go places, now. Like Rachel said--adorable.) "You're not facing them alone."

"Aw, babe," Rachel says, so fond, and presses a kiss to her cheek. Her lipstick is way bolder than what she'd normally go with, and it leaves a mark on her cheek. From the glare Chloe throws her, she knows what Rachel's doing. Rachel can't tell if she's _actually_ annoyed or playful-annoyed, and she frowns again.

By the time they're in front of the big beautiful stained glass doors, she's smiling with a grin like a knife. Chloe calls it her courtroom smile. Rachel takes offense--it's only _one_ of her courtroom smiles. 

"Rachel!" Rose says, and Rachel softens her smile immediately. Rose may not be her mother or her family or even really her friend, anymore, but the ice is for James, not her. "It's so good to see you. Chloe, always a pleasure."

Rose looks unsure, unaware, like she has around Chloe the closer they got. Sure, there was that time after Max moved back and Rachel was jealous and Rose had walked in on them during, uh, a _bad_ moment to be walked in on, but they could've gotten over that. The drugs--that was more Frank anyway, and they could've gotten over that. Rachel's not sure what Rose doesn't like about Chloe, honestly, but Chloe's hers, now, and if Rose isn't fine with it--

"Rachel, courtroom smile," Chloe hisses, and Rachel softens it to something more distant than cruel. "Rose."

Rose nods and moves to let them in. Her face has more lines now, which makes sense, considering it's been more than half a decade since they actually spent time together, but it's strange to see. Has it really been that long? They don't do Christmas anymore, ever since Rachel threw a rock through the big beautiful stained glass doors to see if it shattered neatly into the pieces it already had or into something finer, and that had been their only point of contact. 

Sometimes Rose will post about her on Facebook. Rachel briefly considered deleting her account, but it seemed like an overreaction, so she didn't. Her therapist had told her to think on why she's so upset that Rose still thinks of her, but what does a person with a doctorate in psychology and a thorough understanding of specifically her psyche know?

James is sitting in his chair, same as always, drinking sherry, same as always. Rachel's almost disappointed. She'd hoped to see him--change, somehow. Not for the better, Chloe's taught her to be a bit of a cynic, but to see some sign other than the gray hairs would have been...nice. She guesses. As it is, she feels too much like a teenager dealing with rage issues she hadn't addressed. (Along with sexuality issues. And needing-attention issues. And addiction issues. She really wasn't doing _well_ when she lived here.)

"Rachel," James says, not looking at her. What's the use of a courtroom smile if no one looks at her?

Chloe squeezes her hand, the thin, fake metal of the rings they'd bought at some costume store on her girlfriend's hand grounding her.

"James," Rachel says, making sure the ice in her voice makes up the difference for a lack of visual input. He only responds by turning the page. Rachel turns to Rose. "So, dinner."

It's not a question, but Rose, glancing anxiously back and forth between them, takes it as one, loudly suggesting Chloe could set the table ( _again?_ , Chloe mutters, but complies) and Rachel could help her cook. 

Rachel helps, and talks about how she feels about her public defender job, laughs about how prosecutors are so often these money-obsessed monsters, and she hears the newspaper get crumpled in the other room. Rachel carefully doesn't look. Chloe does, though, face flushed and tight smile back on her face. Rachel doesn't know what she's doing _wrong._ It's not as though Chloe feels bad for James or Rose--Rachel had helped her put David and Joyce in their place, not that it's quite the same--and Rachel always acts like this, cold and raging, when they're doing this revenge thing. (It's all fake--really pissed Rachel burns hot. Chloe knows that better than anyone.)

Rachel talks about living with Chloe, throwing her these shy, careful glances that aren't even really fake at all, just planned for maximum impact. Chloe's supposed to look back at her like they're lovey-dovey, which they _are_ , so Rachel's not sure why she's _not_ doing that. Rachel's really worried, now, that she's missed something major, something relationship-ending, something she should have fixed ahead of time.

Dinner is something simple and probably delicious, but it tastes like cardboard in her mouth as she keeps smiling and talking, about how modeling pays enough for her to pay the bills but Chloe's the one who covers the rent, really, with the beautiful ways she paints cars for the rich and famous. She's careful to emphasize _rich_ , make it sound like a bad thing, because James had always thought his money was what was going to bring Rachel back to him, and that's _not_ happening.

The worst part, really, is that she almost did. After graduation, Rachel and Chloe had a new relationship and a new, shitty apartment in LA and one night the bath wouldn't shut _off_ and the drain was clogged and the room was flooding the landlord wasn't picking up her calls, and she had been so, so close to calling him and begging him to take care of her, because she wasn't cut out for this, for a life with struggle.

Chloe had come home, fixed it in a minute, joked about how it was lucky they were on the ground floor, and Rachel never told her she almost left her. (Again.)

 _You're more worried about how people perceive you than reaching a deeper level of understanding with them,_ her therapist had said, and Rachel had laughed and made some sex joke about getting _deeper_.

But anyway. The matter at hand. Dinner, ruining James' night, showing Chloe off to Blackwell and a _pissed off_ Wells (he'd always had it in for her), and hopefully a fun night with Chloe at their old haunts after everything.

"That's a...lovely ring," Rose says, like Rachel knew she would. She smiles a bit, trying to keep it shy and not cat-that-got-in-the-cream. "Where did you get it?"

"Oh, Chloe got it for me," Rachel says, shooting her girlfriend a bashful glance, and Chloe looks like she's about to start throwing things. 

"Wait," James says, harsh and judgmental, and part of her wanted something different from him, something she tries to ignore, the part of her that almost called him ages back. "You _didn't_."

"Didn't what?" Rachel asks innocently, all wide-eyed surprise. Chloe grits her teeth.

"Rachel, this phase has gone on long enough," James says judgmentally. "If you're into girls, that's acceptable, but you can't waste your life with--"

"Oh, fuck you," Chloe interrupts, and storms out. It's not what they'd discussed, which means it's genuine, which means Rachel's fucked _up_ somehow.

Rachel has a choice. She can rejoice in winning this passive-aggressive conflict with the people she used to call her family, yell at James and ignore Rose's tears and thrive in tearing someone apart in the way she normally keeps to the courtroom. Or--she can give up what's probably her last chance to do any of that, and follow Chloe.

It's hardly a choice at all, really, and she ignores James' voice rising as she heads out.

Chloe's waiting by the car, smoking a cigarette. It's worse than she thought--Chloe had been really good about stopping smoking. She can see her hands shaking in the dim light.

"Chloe," Rachel says, and her tone's all wrong, still too pleased about James' reaction, and she can tell Chloe hears it because she doesn't look at her. "Chloe, what's wrong?"

"What," Chloe says, the lines of her expression harsh and angry, softened a little by the light from the cigarette. "You can't figure it out yourself, genius?"

Rachel frowns. "No, I don't--I'm not _good_ at this, Chloe."

"Don't try and make me feel bad for you," Chloe says. "Not right now. You're the one who--fucked up my life, and paraded me around to _brag_ about it, and you're the one who won't--"

Chloe shuts up, and that's not like her at all.

"Chloe, I'm not...trying to make you pity me," Rachel says, and trying to be as honest as she's trying to be always feels like pulling her skin apart so that someone can see her insides working. All-too-personal, wholly inappropriate. It's not what this is, though, so she keeps going. "I just...I really don't know what's wrong. And I want to, I want to be able to fix it, because I love you!"

"Do you?" Chloe says, and they haven't had to have that conversation in so long. Rachel had kissed her and gotten a tattoo she chose and moved in with her and stayed with her and is only ever truly herself with her, and for Chloe to doubt that feels like fire in her gut.

But Chloe's right. Rachel _is_ the one who fucked up, and it's on her to fix it. 

"I do," Rachel says. "And whatever I've done to make you doubt that, I'm so sorry, Chloe, because you're the most important person in my life. You have to know that."

"I..." Chloe takes a deep breath, and Rachel knows _her_ therapist has been telling her to do that when she's angry, sometimes. It means Chloe's trying, too, and the fire Rachel's starting to feel cools back down to embers. "I do, but you make it so fucking hard, sometimes. This whole fucking--scheme of yours, it doesn't exactly make me feel _loved._ "

"What, the...fake marriage thing?" Rachel says, not as surprised as she should be. She'd known she was upset, but she hadn't asked. She should have asked. "Why?"

"Because you'll parade me in front of your parents, and you'll parade me in front of Blackwell, your fucked-up pet dropout, but it's not like--you're just fucking _using_ me!" Chloe says, voice rising. Rachel should worry about Rose, and James, but she pushes it to the back of her mind. Chloe's what's important right now. "If I meant fucking anything to you--"

"You mean the _world_ to me, Chloe Price," Rachel says, and Chloe takes another deep breath, drops her cigarette and grinds it under her heel. "I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. What do I need to do to prove it?"

Chloe looks at her, more sad than angry, and Rachel's heart breaks. "Would you drop this? Let us drive home right now?"

"Yes," Rachel says without needing to think about it.

"Would you--no, never mind. It's stupid."

Rachel notices Chloe took her ring off, is holding her hands against the rental car in half-fists. And she thinks, _oh, I've been so fucking dumb_. So she kneels in front of Chloe, taking her hands like she did in that play, what feels like a million years ago. "Chloe."

"Rachel," Chloe says, uncertain. Rachel's so fucking in love with her.

"If I'd known," Rachel says, trying to stay honest against every instinct she has to hide, "If I'd known that you had any doubt about how I felt about you, I'd have done this years ago. I love you, Chloe. You're the one person in the world I can be myself with, and I know how long it took us to get there, but you--you're amazing. You're wonderful, and you're kind, and you're more honest than anyone I know."

Chloe takes a deep breath, makes an expression like she's trying not to be hopeful, and it breaks her fucking heart.

"If I'd known," Rachel says again. "I'd have bought a ring."

Chloe smiles. "What, no plan?"

"You know," Rachel says. "You could _not_ ruin me proposing to you."

"I gotta be true to myself," Chloe says, smile still on her face. 

"Yeah," Rachel says. "Um, is that a yes, or--"

"I'd say of course, but maybe I should let you squirm," Chloe says, and Rachel laughs, jumps up and pushes Chloe into the rental to kiss her. The alarm goes off, and James yells from the front porch, and the evening's a mess all around.

They skip the reunion and stop by a jewelry shop on the drive home.


End file.
